22 April 2026 | Wednesday | News
Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503, President and CEO: Naoki Okamura, "Astellas") and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted for Priority Review a supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for perioperative (before and after surgery) PADCEV™ (enfortumab vedotin-ejfv), a Nectin-4 directed antibody-drug conjugate, in combination with the PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda® (pembrolizumab) or Keytruda QLEX™ (pembrolizumab and berahyaluronidase alfa-pmph) as treatment for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC).
This regimen was FDA-approved in November 2025 for use as perioperative treatment in cisplatin-ineligible patients with MIBC. This filing seeks to expand the indication to patients with MIBC regardless of cisplatin eligibility. The FDA grants Priority Review to medicines that may offer significant advances in treatment or may provide a treatment where limited therapy options exist.i Under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), the FDA has set a target action date of August 17, 2026.
Moitreyee Chatterjee-Kishore, PhD, MBA, Head of Oncology Development, Astellas
"The data from the EV-304 trial take us another step closer to bringing perioperative enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab to patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer regardless of cisplatin eligibility, who still face a recurrence rate of more than fifty percent despite curative-intent surgery, highlighting the ongoing need for improved treatment strategies."
Jeff Legos, PhD, MBA, Chief Oncology Officer, Pfizer
"For people with muscle‑invasive bladder cancer, surgery is often just the beginning of a long and uncertain journey, with far too many patients seeing their cancer return. If approved, perioperative PADCEV plus pembrolizumab could meaningfully change that experience, potentially helping patients reduce the risk of recurrence and live longer, regardless of whether they are eligible for cisplatin."
The sBLA submission was based on data from the Phase 3 EV-304 clinical trial (also known as KEYNOTE-B15), evaluating perioperative enfortumab vedotin in combination with pembrolizumab in patients with MIBC eligible for cisplatin-containing chemotherapy. Results from EV-304, presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU), showed a 47% reduction in the risk of tumor recurrence, progression or death and a 35% reduced risk of death for perioperative enfortumab vedotin in combination with pembrolizumab compared to standard of care neoadjuvant (before surgery) gemcitabine and cisplatin chemotherapy.ii The combination also demonstrated a pathological complete response (pCR) rate of 55.8% compared with 32.5% pCR rate in the chemotherapy arm at the time of surgery.ii
The safety profile for perioperative enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab observed in EV-304 was consistent with prior experience with the combination and there were no new safety signals.ii These data will be discussed with additional global health authorities for potential regulatory filings.
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